twistermom: Way to go! Congratulations!

Mamasara6: You can do this! Be strong!

misskriss: Welcome and good luck!

I just finished a three-day carb up. I'm experimenting with a shorter carb up this week. I gained 1.5 pounds (1 pound up from where my last carb down ended, though), and am starting carb down today. I'm hoping to hit the 140s very, very soon! I'm going to be super strict, about 15 net carbs/under 1200 cals. We'll see how it goes...

Anyone else who is trying this, please post. Let us know how you're doing.

Anita

I am not doing this exactly like you guys are but I have found that about every 2 weeks I will have a carb day and not always good carbs. Last weekend I ate SUGAR!!! in the form of brownies and then some McDonalds french fries and also some nachos. I was up about 2 lbs for a few days but now that is gone plus one more. I have noticed after I do a carbout for about 24 hours, I will put on some water weight but then drop that and some more within a few days. I guess there is something to this since I have done it inadvertently 3 times.

Yep, Monster66 - That's what I have experienced in the past. I use to NEVER be able to stay true to my eating plans. BUT, I lost weight better than I have this go around, and this time I've been super clean.

However, part of my motivation for lowcarbing is health, keeping blood sugar low is important for my blood pressure (I'm off BP meds after 20 YEARS! And, according to my doctor, I was on a pretty hefty dose. I took both a thiazide diuretic AND a beta blocker. My ENTIRE family, mother, father, and two brothers, are ALL on BP meds.) I DO NOT want to eat carbage.

That's why I came up with this plan. It, I guess, does a gentle carb load, just enough to rev the metabolism. (I saw this idea in a lower carb plan called Lean for Life .)

I encourage everyone not to use carb up as an excuse to eat carbage! This is a WOL that you will need to maintain for the rest of your life. Your health is SOOO worth it!

Also - many lowcarbers have found that once they go "offplan" for a day or two, they NEVER come back. IT'S NOT WORTH IT!!!

Just some "food" for thought...

That is so true. I ate a piece.....A PIECE...of cake this past weekend and paid for it until today. Terrible headaches and blurred vision. It was awful! My carb ups will be with veggies and yummy fruit!!! It isn't worth it!

So true Anita, so true.

I think I'm going to have a weekend splurge of some steel cut oats for breakfast. I've been having difficulty thinking of things I can eat that won't be too carby, be healthy and so on. I can mix some flax seed meal with it, some SF syrup and it should be a nice carb-up item! Now I just need some time to get to the store.

I think you are right that the way I have been doing things is NOT the right way to do it but it just happened that way for me. I have tried upping good carbs and havent found the number of carbs yet that will work for me. I dont intend for this to be a habit but the occasional piece of cake would be nice. I have had no problem going right back on my plan because that is when I feel the best.

OK i have been doing this carb cycling for a while now and i started at 185 and i am down to 181. so 4 pound loss . and i have not been that strict i donw know why but I like you Monster can not get back in to the swing of things. so on tuesday i will start AGAIN with a carb down and go from there. i am hoping 20 grams of carbs and 1200 calories.

OK now that all that is said i want to get on a soap box for a momment, This IS a way of life and not a diet, so saying for the next 50 years ( i am 30 so i figure i got about 50 years left) I will never have cake i will never have bread or potatos again or a big mac to me is rediculus. and in my mind set it is better to learn how to deal with eating these things every once and a while now raher then get down to my goal wieght and have a carb free for all. If i learn now how to have One day of carbs or even one weekend, then disapline myself to get right back to this way of life i think it will be better then to tell my self that yummy carrot cake or lovely pastrie is never going to happen again.

Stepping off soap box - you may return to you normal lives LOL

hi,

well a mini-report for my first carb cycle.

i decided to start cycling around 10 days ago. i'd had a fairly higher carb week the week before; a day of CAD and some slightly uncontrolled lc chocolate consumption for a couple of days, so i started on carb down, and i was at 162.8 then. I had seen 161.6 prior to that, but not for quite a while - I tend to hit a low and then 'lose' it for a few weeks before getting back there again. I did carb down for about a week, although the weekend was more difficult to be really strict, and by this thursday just gone, a week after starting carb down, I was at 161.4, so I'd managed to make it down just past the lowest low I'd seen. Then thurs-sat I did carb up. I didn't count calories, because I was away on holiday, but I stayed low carb except I ate a couple pieces of fruit and some lc chocolate every day, and I'm sure cals were up from amounts of regular lc food I was eating. This morning I stepped on the scale, hoping to not have to wince too hard, as it was the first time I was using it after 3 days of carbing up. It read 160.6! So basically, after 3 days of carbing up I'm lighter than I was at the end of the carb down. Now I'm a bit stumped as to what to do now. I had been planning to go straight back to carb down today, and only have a short carb up cycle. But then I hadn't expected the scale to give me a new low after doing carb up! Any thoughts?

Deb

i had a day similar to that in my last carb up cycle where i initially dropped a couple of pounds with the carb up. the next day on carb up it came back up though. from from i've experienced these drops on carb up have been temporary. someone else could have a different experience though.

it's up to you to decide if you want to stay on carb up or go to carb down. personally i find that i'm preferring the longer carb ups because i'm really boosting my metabolic health when i can do it for 5 or more days. you were planning on doing carb up on the weekends only if i remember?

great for you dropping to 160! and good luck

* i hope this makes sense i'm half awake this morning great going on finishing a cycle. i'm really happy doing this & glad to be losing after being stalled. And i'm glad there are others, like you, trying it as well. i'll be curious to hear how it continues to work for you.

anyone else trying this & how is it working?

To me, not eating cake, big macs and all the rest is worth feeling healthy and being slimmer.... yes, even for the rest of my life.

My own personal experience with dieting in the past is you finish the diet, you believe you can make minor alterations and have this and that "occassionally". But its a slippery slope. Once you start the slide the momentum picks up and it becomes an avalanche back to old bad eating habits and rapid weight gain.

I know I'm the sort of person who will gravitate back to old eating habits if I don't maintain strict vigilence. I think to really make this a WOL for me, means giving up the old stuff permanently. Which is fine, since I like my new food better. I have absolutely no problem not eating that old crap. It doesn't own my soul.

I think for me, a little bit of bread or cake is like giving a cocaine addict a little bit of cocaine.

debmeg: I guess by now you have decided whether to carb up or down today ! I don't have a good answer. Like nepeta, I've had days on carb up where I have actually LOST weight, but it comes back the next day if I stay carb up. Sounds like for you, though, it was at the END of a carb up, so I don't know. I guess I would go ahead with the carb down and see what happens. Each of us are going to respond differently I think.

nepeta: I had excellent results early on with long carb ups, and I may end up doing that again, although right now I'm experimenting with shorter ones. You had great results with your first long carb up. I'm interested to see some more results from you.

Nancy LC: Yeah, I'm really trying to make this a dedicated WOL. Can I say that I will NEVER have a special treat that is not low carb, of course not. But, day in and day out my plan is to stick to low carb whole foods. I NEVER want to have to go through all of this again.

Looks like several of us are making this work. Can anyone else post results?

Anita

hey,

yes, i decided! i've carbed down again. i'm rarely as in control of my meals at the weekends as i am during the week, because for two meals i am basically at dinner parties every week - making myself or going to friends. so it's much harder to limit calories, even if i manage to limit carbs. which means for me the shorter cycles would just fit in better with my life - to carb down sun-thurs and carb up fri-sun each week, for eg, would be a good way to go. but i'm still at the beginning of this experiment, so i'm just going to see what happens. if i feel i need to experiment with longer cycles, i will. i'll let you know what the scale says tomorrow!

and now, exhausted, i am off to bed...

deb

debmeg: Yep, this has got to work for your life. I would like to carb down Mon-Thurs. and carb up Fri-Sun myself! I just haven't got that working yet. I always want to stay on carb down a little longer to see if I can squeeze out just a little more fat!

Part of the reason for my long carb ups during the summer has been vacations. Like you, with special events going on, I want to be carbing up to make it easier and more enjoyable. For example, I'm going away this weekend, just Friday and Saturday nights, so I MAY extend this carb down through Thursday and then carb down Fri-Sun. But, if I get the same weight three mornings in a row, I'll stop and go back to carb up. AND, perhaps this time try a longer one. We'll see...

This is a work in progress.

debmeg, i agree it needs to fit with your life. keep up the good work.

anita, congrats on getting into the 140's

Thanks nepeta!

It was very exciting yesterday morning when I stepped on the scale and it read 149.6. I haven't been this light in probably twenty years! I had dh step on it after me and he was 147.4!!!! I have to lose about 3 pounds to weigh less than dh! I can't wait. That's my next goal, and then, 135!

It's getting close now, and it REALLY feels like it's going to happen.